Oct. 16, 2017, 3:00 a.m.

Like many other congressional challengers in California right now, Democrat Kia Hamadanchy is trying to tie his opponent to Donald Trump.

Hamandanchy, who is running to be the first Iranian American member of Congress, released his first campaign video ad in his race against Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Irvine).

"When Donald Trump announced his Muslim ban, I knew I had to step up," Hamadanchy says in the video, calling the president's travel ban a "policy built on hatred that would have made my story impossible."

Oct. 16, 2017, 3:00 a.m.

For a governor with the distinction of vetoing fewer bills than any chief executive in modern California history, Gov. Jerry Brown didn't abruptly change course in 2017.

As he's done the last seven years — and the eight years he served as governor a generation ago — Brown signed the vast majority of bills that reached his desk this year.

On Sunday night, he weighed in on the final bills approved by the Legislature before it adjourned for the year on Sept. 16. In all, Brown signed 859 bills in 2017 and vetoed just 118. That veto rate — 12% — is lower than the 15% of proposed laws he rejected in 2016.

Voters will decide in June 2018 whether to borrow $4 billion to fund improvements to the California's parks and water systems after Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 5 on Sunday.

The bond measure, which must be paid back over time with interest, will finance boosts to water recycling, stormwater capture and conservation infrastructure as well as expansion and repairs to state, regional and local parks.

Supporters of the measure, including its author, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), have said the state's parks needs have outgrown available resources. The last statewide parks bond was approved by voters in 2002.

Californians will soon be able to identify as non-binary, as opposed to male or female, on their driver's licenses and birth certificates, under a measure signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday.

State Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) touted her bill, SB 179, as offering a gender-neutral option on state documents for those who are transgender, intersex and others who do not identify as male or female.

The new non-binary designation will be available for California driver’s licenses starting in 2019.

Oct. 16, 2017, 12:15 a.m.

The installation of high-speed “small cell” equipment in California will not be driven by new statewide mandates after Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill pitting the lobbying power of the telecommunications industry against that of local governments.

The bill would have downsized the role played by city and county officials in setting limits on where the equipment for new 5G cellular service would be placed. Local governments would have had less power to unilaterally block the installation of the devices, which Brown said in his veto message was a problem.

"I believe that the interest which localities have in managing rights of way requires a more balanced solution than the one achieved in this bill," he wrote.

An unprecedented effort to force President Trump and other White House hopefuls to disclose their personal income tax returns was blocked by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday, who argued the plan would likely be overturned by the courts.

Brown's veto of Senate Bill 149 put him at odds with legislative Democrats who insisted its mandate for five years of income tax information would help voters make an informed choice. In his veto message, though, the governor said the proposal could have led to other litmus tests for candidates.

"Today we require tax returns, but what would be next?" Brown wrote. "Five years of health records? A certified birth certificate? High school report cards? And will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power?"

Following reports of unaffiliated "independent" California voters who didn't realize they needed a different ballot to participate in last year's Democratic presidential primary, a new state law will mandate more outreach to make sure those voters know the rules.

Some of those voters wanted to cast ballots in the June primary between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders but failed to realize they had to request a Democratic ballot. Ballots for unaffiliated voters in the primary didn't include any presidential candidates.

Oct. 15, 2017, 6:12 p.m.

Any hazardous chemicals found in household cleaning products will have to be clearly disclosed on labels and online under a California law that will be phased in over the next three years.

The law, signed Sunday by Gov. Jerry Brown, is poised to put the state at the front of a national discussion about the rights of consumers to know what dangerous chemicals or allergens may be in common cleaners. The ingredients must be posted online by manufacturers in 2020, and on product labels by 2021.

"People around the country and especially Californians are demanding more disclosure about the chemicals in products we use," said state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), the bill's author, in a written statement. "The science is clear, and we have seen the data about how cleaning product chemicals affect parents, children, people with pre-existing conditions, and workers who use these products all day, every day."

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a measure on Sunday that would have required large companies in California to disclose data on how they’re paying men and women differently.

The measure, AB 1209 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) sought to shed light on gender pay disparities to better understand the persistent pay gap women face. Companies would have had to report to the state aggregate data on the difference in wages between male and female employees with similar job descriptions, as well as compensation disparities between male and female board members.

Brown's veto message sounded a note of caution about the bill's "ambiguous" details. "I am worried that this ambiguity could be exploited to encourage more litigation than pay equity."